Word: gdansk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That dramatic juncture in the unfolding epic of Poland's labor crisis last week took place at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. It showed that the strike leaders had come to recognize the momentous perils and potentially tragic consequences of what they had begun. Their emotional yet disciplined strike for rights, a grass-roots upheaval that was in many ways unprecedented in Moscow's postwar fiefdoms of Eastern Europe, had left Poland teetering on a tightrope...
Before that dramatic announcement, more than 300,000 workers had gone on strike at 600 industrial enterprises in the northern port city of Gdansk and across the Baltic coast region. Sympathy walkouts had spread to at least a dozen other cities. Strikes also broke out among copper miners and ironworkers in lower Silesia...
With northern ports, factories and transportation at a standstill, sugar and flour shortages were mounting; gasoline was no longer available to the public in Gdansk. Communist Party Leader Edward Gierek, shaken by a purge precipitated by the workers' actions, seemed increasingly in jeopardy. Poland and the watching world were rife with rumors that Gierek's days in power were numbered...
...reassuring sign was the manifest desire on both sides to avoid a violent confrontation. Gierek well knows the danger of using force. In 1970, his predecessor used force against the rioting Gdansk workers. Dozens died in the clashes, and Gomulka was finally forced out. Confronted with similar food-price riots in 1976, Gierek wisely backed down on prices rather than resort to massive force. So far, there is no indication that he intends to reverse that policy...
...workers, too, learned some lessons. Heeding Kuron's advice to organize peacefully rather than riot, the Gdansk strikers have established a remarkable degree of order and discipline. "After seeing protesters elsewhere shaking their fists and screaming, this is soul-rending," remarked a West German tourist last week, as she contemplated the eerie calm hanging over Lenin Shipyard. "Nobody is misbehaving," said a square-set foreman, puffing on a cigarette. "This is no time for fun. We're all in this together...